On Friday, 1st Source Bank invited representatives from the American Heart Association of Northwest Indiana to their Valpo Circle Banking Center to present them with a check for $7,500, which will be used to provide CPR Anytime Kits within the communities that 1st Source serves.

With these CPR Anytime Kits for adults and infants being made available in cities and towns across Northwest Indiana, anyone can learn the core skills of CPR in just 20 minutes and be ready to help save a life in an emergency.

“1st Source Bank is truly equipping the community to survive,” said Jennifer Young, Socials Director with the American Heart Association. “We have one for each library that’s the adult and also for infants because they’re very different modules. They’re full of education and will be available in all eight municipalities and towns that are serviced by 1st Source Bank in Northwest Indiana.”

“Truly, this is getting education to Northwest Indiana,” Young added. “We’ll be contacting the libraries in the next couple of weeks to let them know that they’re a recipient of the 1st Source Foundation Grant with the American Heart Association to have a CPR Anytime Kit, and that anyone may check it out and start learning!”

The team at 1st Source Bank, including Regional President Matt Vessely, had been looking to make an impact in the communities they serve and promote the mission of the American Heart Association. With February being ‘heart month’ this is the perfect opportunity to highlight the importance of CPR.

“This started a while back when we had a series of discussions about a way that we could support the American Heart Association’s cause in a tangible way in the communities that we serve,” Vessely said.

“We wanted to support what the American Heart Association does but we really wanted to have it be in a way that would be very meaningful to the community which is where the CPR Anytime Kit comes into play,” he said. “These are tangible training kits that, by virtue of this grant, will be placed in libraries in each of the communities that we serve in La Porte and Porter County.”

The CPR Anytime Kit will be made available to everyone and can be checked out and taken home. The kits, which are full of educational materials and include a DVD, will allow people to self-train in CPR for both adults and infants, each in under a half hour.

“We’re really excited about it,” Vessely added. “It’s a big month and we hope this will not only help the Association build awareness but really help individual community members learn something that will benefit them for their entire life. That’s the beauty of it. You’ll have kids, teenagers and parents who can go into the library, take this home, and teach their whole family how to do CPR in one evening.”

“It’s been a great collaboration between the bank and the American Heart Association to try and find, what we consider to be, an optimal way to deploy significant resources into the community. This is something that can make a difference.”

The 1st Source Bank donation to the American Heart Association will go toward the purchase of the Anytime CPR Kit as well as to update and maintain the kits over time.